The aesthetic nature of fetishism

The dynamics of the polymorphic processes of the modern world has much influenced the fixation in people's consciousness of modulated ideas of a number of cultural phenomena. One of such phenomena is fetishism. What is fetishism: a form of religious consciousness, a type of paraphilia, an aesthetic phenomenon or an art delicacy of culture? The historical and religious view of this problem allows to allocate two approaches. Originally (historically), the phenomenon of fetishism was perceived and described only as a religious phenomenon (material form worshiping). Some researchers of religious culture still share this view on fetishism. A further study of fetishism as a religious phenomenon results in the animistic concept according to which fetishism is understood as a "receptacle" of spiritual essence (Taylor-Eliade's line). Today there are two positions of religious theory of fetishism. The first is historical (de Brosses's and Tokarev's line); the second extra historical and extra religious (Zubov's line). Today there are also a number of psychological theories of fetishism. One of the leading modern theories of fetishism says that fetishism is a variety of a para-philia. However, not all researchers share the paraphiliac theory. Some authoritative psychologists adhere to a more moderate position, pointing to the social prevalence of fetishism. It is possible to draw a conclusion that there is no uniform concept of fetishism in psychology; consideration of psychological theories can be reduced to two positions: 1) fetishism is a mental deviation (Binet's position); 2) fetishism is a norm of sexual culture (Freud's and Reinish's position). Besides, the universalism (possibility of organic embedding in a cultural context) of fetishism in its manifestation forms from the beautiful to the low (from the sacral to the profane) testifies to a more many-sided nature of fetishism which is beyond a religious or psychological discourse. Fetishism can be comprehended and fixed within the aesthetic theory, because in the field of natural sciences (neurophysiology, psychology) and in the field of a historical and religious discourse (theology) there is no convincing concept allowing to explain and protect fetishism from other discipline claims. Thus, what is the correlation of aesthesis (gnosis, experience force, incentive emotional impulse) and fetish (praxis, aesthesis personification environment)? To answer the question, we will dare to resort to the following conceptual unit: alpha level / beta level. Summing up the results of research on the phenomenon of fetishism, the following definitions are offered: Fetish is an aesthetic phenomenon; a form of spiritual or material reality having a subjective value and certain spiritual powers. Fetish possesses a possibility of organic embedding in any sociocultural context. Fetishism is a form of aesthetic consciousness expressed in the subjective sensual and emotional experience of a fetish.

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